What Could've Been
by perablah
Summary: Different things can happen if someone is desperate enough to get their own way. Determined to wake his son, Nataku, up, Li Touten alters the fate of the many things to come...(AU)


A/N: I'm actually amazed no one has done this type of AU before. I mean, there's the high school A/Us, the fantasy A/Us, even A/Us of the U! And this one is the last type of A/U, yet no one has done it with this plot. Are people really that scared to part Sanzo and Goku, only for them to meet up again because the first time round wasn't so great? I mean, jeez.

Anyhow, this fanfic will also center a lot on Nataku, because dammit, Nataku needs time to shine too!

And maybe Homura. But Homura doesn't really come till Reload and yeah, I'm not going to make it THAT epic, if I continue it at all. People who are know my author profile well also know I struggle to continue chaptered fanfics. :p

------Prologue------

Goku stared up onto the strange man, with hair as bright as the noon sun and clothes just as fine and clean, no speck of dirt on them.

He stared at him, and the man stared back. Goku wondered if the man would set him free. He also wondered if he was a man in the first place, since the person seemed awfully young, not yet in a mans body.

"Oy."  
Goku found himself blinking at the rough voice of the stranger. Violet eyes glared at him.  
"Oy!"

Goku opened his mouth to reply, his throat felt scratchy, but he persisted, "....eh?"

"...Are you the one who's been calling me?"  
Words couldn't seem to form, was he in shock?  
"...eh?"

The stranger ground their teeth together in what seemed to be a display of irritation. Goku looked on curiously.  
"I said - were you the one who called me?"

Goku once again tried to move his mouth into talking, the stranger sighed and his glare seemed to intensify.

The golden eyed youkai, finally able to swallow enough spit down to make his throat somewhat at ease, once again tried to speak,  
"...I... I didn't... call you..."

Goku winced as his throat created pain anew, his answer sounding rough with an intonation that didn't seem to match the stranger's.  
Said stranger cocked his head to the side, still frowning.  
"No...?"

Goku shook his head, negative and looked...forlorn. He felt a wave of loneliness rush over him again. This person that radiated like the sun was sure to leave, not finding what he was hoping to find. Yet...

"Um...who are you?"  
The stranger stared at him. The youkai-boy sounded sincerely confused.  
The stranger's temper snapped.

"Don't lie to me!" Goku shrank away from him, eyes widening to the size of small saucers. "Do you have any idea how noisy you are? How annoying it is?" The stranger continued to rave on.

Goku, still shrinking back, continued to watch the stranger, who suddenly swung around to face him.  
Then paused.

It was a great while before the stranger moved again, but it seemed like seconds to Goku, who was trapped in here for gods knew how long, yet as the stranger took one step closer to the bars. A corner of his mind was hammering frantically at him -what is going on?-

Except that he was not thinking. Not really. The fancy-clothed boy steeped closer and closer, raising a hand.

"I can't stand you, your calls."  
"So...come."

He stared at the golden-haired person, felt fear, disbelief, suspicion... but that tiny spark of something that was not yet hope bloomed in his depths... and it rose like a tide to sweep everything away...

He was moving, shuffling on his knees, the chains scraping and rattling on the uneven floor. Closer, on palms and knees in front of the offered palm, the small upturned face lit up by the setting sun. He stopped.

And raised one bound hand, slowly, hesitantly, as if afraid that this person was a mirage that would disappear when touched -

Everything was gone.

'Found you' he felt his words echo in his mind, but as soon as they did, he saw his eyes being drawn not to the setting sun, but the rising moon....'or....not?'

A vision....sunset eyes that flashed and his shackle free hands gripped at his head as a voice probed his mind,

'Come....'  
'....wake me....'  
'I feel...'  
'lonely'

Goku blinked, and the voice retreated to the back of his mind, buzzing, but not that bothersome.

And the stranger was watching him, a solid face completely impassive, but Goku could smell his perplexity, then, there was a sudden strange calm.

"The voice...is gone...." The man-sun-boy voiced.

Sighing, the man turned, "Finally, silence..."

Turning, the man-child regained his composure that his sigh had wrecked, "Well, are you coming?"

Goku wanted to go. He desperetly wanted to go with this man with the golden hair of the sun, yet...

The voice got louder again and Goku winced, and along with the voice came images, Black hair, pale skin, sunset eyes, a man that looked like an older version of this boy and a voice that sounded a lot the the boys joined in chorus with the other....

'Go away Goku,'  
'Goku, I'm busy'  
'SHUT UP!'

Goku winced once again and rubbed his wrists which were rubbed raw and pale from years of no sun shining on them and being shackled.  
"I...appreciate it, but...."

The voices seem to quieten, why was his mouth moving on it's own?  
"I don't want to be a burden."

The stranger snorted, muttered a 'Whatever', and went down the track. Not even a backward glance, yet Goku smelt the...the what? He couldn't seem to identify it, there was some irritation and anger, but something-

Outwardly, Goku felt himself staring after the finely clothed back, wishing and wishing that he would just MOVE and chase after the man and say everything was a lie.

But he didn't.

It wasn't until the moon had reached it's peak did Goku howl and scramble down the hill.

But then it was two late.

Unseen, a golden and violet threads that were so close to inter-winding with each other, were pulled apart, the golden thread moved closer to an amber one.

A voice whispered into the air, 'Not yet, not yet, for Nataku to wake, things have to be done my way...'  
"Shit, who let him in?!"  
"He's tampered with the threads!"  
"Someone contact Kannon-sama!"

------------

Genjyo Sanzo scowled up at the Three Aspects. The Three Aspects ignored said scowling and continued with what they were saying.

"So, in short, Genjyo Sanzo, you will be traveling to the West, with the help of three traveling companions, known to you as Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai and Son Goku."

At this, Sanzo paused at his glowering, and slight frown crossing his features.

He knew of Cho Hakkai and Sha Gojyo, they had become companions, for lack of better words, a few years back after he himself had brought Cho Gonou in and out came out Cho Hakkai.

But as for Son Goku...  
"I know no one by the name of Son Goku."

The three aspects looked perplexed.  
"That is not possible, it is known that they WILL meet and-"  
"Maybe they did but..."  
"Quiet!"

The other two aspects quieted down and stared down at Sanzo silently, who himself itched to handle his gun or fan. It was obvious that they were talking about him, but doing so in a way that gods can only do, telepathy.

Finally, they all nodded simultaneously.

"Genjyo Sanzo," They intoned. If possible, Sanzo stood straighter and kept his head high, not to be daunted.

"You went on a pilgrimage a few years back," One started,  
"And you set free a boy on a mountain," Another carried on. Sanzo wondered how the hell they got their information.  
"He is Son Goku." The Third and last finished.  
"You are to find him and travel to the west with your other two companions!" They intoned together once again.

Sanzo knew this was coming, but it didn't make his itching for his gun lessen.

Finally, as they intoned on about other specifics. The rise in youkai, Gyumaou, the wave...he was dismissed to create arrangements.

------------

A/N: Yeah, it isn't that great, but it's a start and I didn't separate them 'forever and ever' like you all would not want, but dammit, Nataku does nothing in the series and I always wanted to know what'd be like if Sanzo and Goku didn't go together until laters Just to see how Goku would cope on his own, etc, etc So...yeah.

See the Go button down there? Click it and make me happy. C&C is welcome, but flames, as always, spontaneously combust.


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